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The Weirdest Ice Cream Flavors In L.A.
If there's one thing our city isn't short on, it's creativity. And Lord knows we love our ice cream. Here are some of the wildest flavors around town. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Photo of Corner Door's crazy whole grain ice cream by Krista Simmons/LAist
WHOLE GRAIN MUSTARD ICE CREAM (CORNER DOOR)
When we came across this cold condiment on the Corner Door's menu, we were morbidly intrigued. It comes as the spread on their charcuterie board, which also includes some excellent house pickles, cured meats, and thinly-sliced toast. When asked via Twitter what our thoughts were on this unique icy treat, we replied, "Kind of like 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians' -- revolting and unnecessary, but couldn't stop coming back for more.
The Corner Door is located at 12477 W Washington Blvd, Culver City, (310) 313-5810
SWEET CORN ICE CREAM (SWEET ROSE CREAMERY)
The summer brings in all sorts of bounty, one of our favorites of which is corn. Throwing it on the grill is a great idea, but the Santa Monica ice cream shop from Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan (Rustic Canyon, Milo & Olive, Huckleberry) decided to turn it into a pretty cool treat. If you're one of those people that loved those little honeyed masa balls that came on the side of El Torito's combo plates (don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, food snobs) or Tamales Liliana's sweet corn tamales, you'll totally dig it.
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Sweet Rose Creamery is located at 225 26th St #51, Santa Monica, (310) 260-2663
BROWN BREAD ICE CREAM (SCOOPS)
It's impossible to talk about outlandish ice cream flavors without mentioning Scoops. Their democratic approach to soliciting flavor ideas from customers comes up with some very unique suggestions. Just last week, for instance, someone suggested a scoop based off the scent of a newborn baby's head. Not all ideas are executed, of course. But one that's a strangely delicious standby, and one of our favorite ice creams in L.A.period, is the brown bread. Their secret ingredient is using Grape Nuts cereal instead of actual dried loaves, which makes the texture of the ice cream much smoother than other versions. Now that's what we call the breakfast of champions.
Scoops Westside is located at 3400 Overland Ave, Los Angeles, (323) 405-7055
Photo of Cafe Del Rey's corn ice cream, which is served in addition to the beet version mentioned here courtesy of Cafe Del Rey
RED BEET ICE CREAM (CAFE DEL REY)
This Marina Del Rey restaurant has a few new seasonal additions to their line of whacky-flavored ice creams, including red beet, sweet corn, and bacon. The bacon flavor was a product of the ultimate recycling effort; it's created with bacon molasses that's rendered off when making the house made rosemary brown sugar braised bacon.
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Cafe Del Rey/ is located at 4451 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey, (310) 823-6395
LOADED BAKED POTATO ICE CREAM (SALT & STRAW)
Cousins Kim and Tyler Malek have garnered quite a bit of attention with their Portland-based creamery, Salt & Straw. Their small-batch seasonal scoops delve into some pretty whacky flavors up at their Portland outpost, including an upcoming collaboration with Michael Voltaggio that'll modeled after a loaded baked potato. The scoops will be made by combining bacon chocolate crumbs covered in chocolate, onion juice caramel, white cheddar cookie dough, and a potato ice cream base. They are reserving that flavor for a festival up in the Northwest, but they are serving up plenty of fun flavors at Joans on Third worth checking out. Our personal favorite is the meyer lemon buttermilk custard with ribbons of blueberry jam.
Salt & Straw is located inside Joan's on Third at 8350 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, (323) 655-2285
BLACK LICORICE ICE CREAM (FOSSELMAN'S)
When fall rolls around, it seems like every single purveyor of anything edible spikes their dishes with pumpkin. Legendary ice cream shop Fosselman's does that too, but the real draw in October is their black licorice ice cream. You'll either love it or hate it, but one thing is for sure: you'll be shocked by the dark-as-night color. It's truly a one-of-a-kind ice cream.
Fosselman's is located at 1824 W Main St, Alhambra, (626) 282-6533
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Photo of CoolHaus' fried chicken creation courtesy of Freida Wonder
FRIED CHICKEN AND WAFFLE ICE CREAM (COOLHAUS)
Leave it to the creators of the donut ice cream sandwich andbeer pretzel sammie to fulfill the dreams of every Roscoe's-loving Angeleno. Their fried chicken and waffle ice cream sandwich blends sweet in savory in the best of ways, and is totally worth stalking them on Twitter for.
CoolHaus is located at 588 W Washington Blvd., Culver City, (310) 424-5559
OLIVE OIL GELATO (BULGARINI)
The big draw at Bulgarini is the annual arrival of owner Leo Bulgarini's Sicilian pistachio gelato. But while you wait for that fated moment to come, there's the excellent olive oil version. While olive oil desserts might sound a little strange to Americans, cakes, tarts, and other delightful Italian desserts use EVOO for sweet stuff all the time. And now that Bulgarini has set up shop in the quickly-gentrifying Grand Central Market, there's yet another place you can find your fix.
Bulgarini Gelato is located at 749 E Altadena Dr, Altadena, (626) 627-7640
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